should one react against the laziness of railway tracks between the passage of two trains
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Date
2014-05-21
Authors
McMurrich, Donald
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
should one react against the laziness of railway tracks between the passage of two trains investigates the everyday as experienced in the post-industrial landscape. Through the activities of walking and mapping, fieldwork is conducted during treks that follow the route of the railroad in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. I examine detritus as post-readymade artifacts of the industrial economy that has abandoned the area. Interventions of minimal gestures engage the inherent narratives of these discarded materials. Improvised assembled sculptures mark my route as a form of wayfinding that re-appropriates the neglected urban space of the railroad right of way. Online maps document these treks as open works of art to be completed by participants as self-guided walks. The activity of walking and assembling sculptures in these marginal landscapes is a playful strategy that resists the alienation of immaterial labour in our contemporary economic context.
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Keywords
found object. assemblage. sculpture. walking. cognitive mapping. the everyday. immaterial labour. play. Conceptual art. Neo-conceptualism.